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Pilot "Floating City" Expected To Be Sited In Tahiti Lagoon

Submitted by PIR Editor on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 10:21

Collaboration with US based firm on a pilot project to test out sustainable living on the sea, boost sea level rise resiliency

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, January 23, 2017) – The creators of a floating community planned for French Polynesia hope to set up platforms to house just a few dozen people in the lagoon near Tahiti.

French Polynesia signed a deal with the US based Seasteading Institute to collaborate on the pilot project to test out sustainable living on the sea earlier this month.

The institute's Executive Director Rudolph Hencken said the design was yet to be worked out but the community could be sited near a reef break close to Tahiti's shore.

Mr Hencken said French Polynesia signed up because it wanted to boost its economy as well as resiliency against rising seas.

"They're looking for economic activity to keep their population engaged. Their biggest economic driver is tourism and they want us to bring in technologists and other research opportunities so the young people can be involved in modernity."

"The aim is to make people take better care of the ocean and he'd like to eventually see a thousand floating cities on the ocean," he said.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.